The Five Demands

Giunta la conferma dell’effettiva uscita della First Lady dal DUP

Iris Robinson, di cui si sono perse le tracce dal mese di dicembre 2009, è definitivamente fuori dalla politica.
Dopo le comunicazioni giunte dalla House of Commons, Assembly e Castlereagh Borough Council, anche il DUP ha ufficializzato l’uscita dal suo organico della Sig.ra Robinson, moglie dell’auto-sospeso Primo Ministro, Peter Robinson.
Nè Iris Robinson, nè il figlio Gareth anch’egli consigliere di Castlereagh, hanno preso parte alla seduta straordinaria del consiglio tenuta ieri sera. In occasione della riunione è stato richiesto l’avvio di un’inchiesta indipendente per valutare le violazioni di legge attribuibili a Iris Robinson in relazione all’operazione finanziaria a favore del suo ‘amante’ Kirk McCambley.
La dipartita di Iris Robinson dal Castlereagh Council, significa che il DUP ha ormai perso il controllo di un Consiglio che per tre decenni il primo ministro Peter Robinson ne ha fatto la sua roccaforte, vincendo il rispetto riluttante di rivali per la sua genialità politica, prima di lasciare nel 2007. Un ulteriore colpo inferto alla popolarità del partito unionista in picchiata libera.

On her own: Iris leaves politics (NewsLetter)
Beset by scandal and in ill health, Iris Robinson tonight resigned from the last of her three political roles.
The DUP confirmed that Mrs Robinson, who has not been seen in public since before Christmas, is no longer a member of the party her husband leads.
Bringing to a sorry end Mrs Robinson’s 20-year political career, throughout yesterday it was announced that letters of resignation had been received by the House of Commons, Stormont Assembly and Castlereagh Borough Council.
Neither Mrs Robinson nor her son Gareth, who is also a Castlereagh councillor, were present at a special meeting of the council last night where an as yet unnamed private consultancy was appointed to investigate whether she broke the law.
Mrs Robinson leaves public life less than a week after BBC Spotlight’s revelations that she carried money between wealthy businessmen and her teenage lover to help with his council-backed cafe.
Her departure from Castlereagh council means that the DUP has now lost control of a council which for three decades First Minister Peter Robinson made his stronghold, winning the grudging respect of rivals for his political brilliance, before leaving in 2007.
Even when the DUP was an outsider in the unionist playing field, Castlereagh council, along with Ian Paisley’s topping of the European poll were two notable electoral successes.
Now, from the DUP’s position as the dominant unionist party in Northern Ireland, it has lost both in the space of less than 12 months.